Out of Time (Nine Minutes #2) Read Online Free

he’d filled with water.
    Now, in the gas station restroom, he splashed cold water on his face and dried off. He reached into his back pocket before leaving the restroom and took out the picture of Ruthie and Razor. He would never hold her again. He would never hear her voice asking for a story. He would never wrap his arms around Razor’s neck and nuzzle his short fur. He swiped away the tears that had started forming in his eyes and returned the picture to his back pocket.
    He’d taken a vow that day at Ruthie’s grave. No more crying. Ever.
    He was starting to get hungry and decided to go back to the car to get some money. He would see what the gas station had in the way of food. Hopefully, they had some candy bars and soda pop. He’d tasted soda only once and was looking forward to the sugary drink.
    He made his way around the side of the gas station and stopped dead in his tracks. The car he had been riding in was gone. He blinked to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him. They weren’t. That son-of-a-bitch drove off with his brown bag that contained his few items of clothing and all of his money. He had left his canteen on the front seat. Even that was gone.
    The world was rotten and so was everybody in it.
     

Chapter One
    2000, Two Days After Grizz’s Execution
     
     
    “You’re saying you would rather see Leslie dead than read in some stupid magazine article that I’m Grizz’s son? That doesn’t sound like you, Ginny.”
    Tommy tried to remain calm and focused, but he could see the life he had patiently waited for with the woman he loved evaporating before his eyes.
    “Of course I don’t want Leslie dead! I’m just in shock. How could you and Grizz have kept this from me? I feel so stupid. Foolish.” Ginny crossed her arms and rubbed her hands up and down as if to ward off a chill. She wouldn’t, couldn’t, look him in the eyes. Not yet.
    Finally, she stood, her voice quiet. “I can’t do this now, Tommy. I’m too angry. I cannot talk about this. I need to leave.”
    “Look at me, Ginny.” He stood too, grabbing her by both shoulders. “Look at me!”
    She shrugged him off. “No. I can’t look at you. I can’t believe the lies you let me live with all these years.”
    “Ginny, I didn’t always—”
    She interrupted him as something occurred to her. “Oh, no. No. Mimi is your sister! Our daughter is really your half-sister.”
    This time she did look at Tommy, and what he saw on her face filled him with dread.
    “Get out. You need to leave now ,” she spat. He’d never seen Ginny angry like this. Never.
    “We need to talk, Ginny. I’m not leaving. This is my home, too.”
    “It’s not anymore.”
    Ginny strode to the front door, hands shaking. “I have to pick Jason up at Max’s house. Don’t be here when I get back. I mean it, Tommy. I want you out.”
    She picked up her purse and car keys from the little table that sat next to their front door, accidentally knocking over a framed picture as she did. It was a photo of the whole family—Ginny with Tommy, Mimi, and then-newborn Jason. She had just brought him home from the hospital and couldn’t remember a time when she’d been happier. Her friend, Carter, had taken the picture, presenting it to them in a homemade frame as a gift. She started to pick it up to set it back in place, then realized the picture was nothing more than a reminder of her fraudulent life. A life based on lies.
    She left it face down on the little table and turned to look back at Tommy once more.
    “You said you talked to Grizz right before he died and he said he was sorry. I don’t believe you.” Tears threatened, but she didn’t let them fall. “I only heard Grizz say he was sorry for one thing and that was twenty-five years ago.”
    She slammed the front door behind her.
    Backing out of the driveway a little too quickly, she sped off. Her shoulders shook as she drove and she gasped when, in her careless haste, she almost sideswiped someone.